A Tale of Two EBPs, Vol III

In this installment of "As the EBP World Turns," we return to our heroes and heroines at VicPD and London PS to see how they are faring in the face of the harsh adversities and terrible tragedies they weather in their quest to push their EBP projects to triumph.

Let's look in first at VicPD.

Things here are continuing apace!

First, there's been some positive developments in the ongoing struggle (aka 'research') to better understand whether/how/and why work in the Special Victims Unit has grown more complex over the past 10 years. Initially, the focus was intended to be more on conducting a deep dive into files and reports as a method of charting growing complexity; however, initial analysis of our interview data suggested a major redirect. Rather than narrowing in on

things like increases in the volume of reports, or the effects of court decisions, the issue we feel we should be tracking is the role of technological change in driving workload increases. -- watch this space --

A second project underway has generated some initial analyses of missing persons data. What we are hoping to do is to use data to construct a typology of cases and then create cost estimates per each case type. This will allow agencies to not only know how their resources are being used in these situations, but also to potentially support trialing preventative measures and/or to rethink police responses.

The third project comes courtesy of Colin Watson (who will be the first ever recipient of the entirely non-existent CAN-SEBP Genius Award). Colin has offered to assist us with the development of an EBP decision-making checklist for practitioners. Say, for example, that someone comes to you with a "great idea" they heard about at a conference or training session. In advance of pitching their idea, they could run through a checklist to ensure

they have done their due diligence in ensuring the program/practice/policy has solid evidence to support it. This is going on the "to do" list for this fall/winter with an early 2020 launch.

Over to the London Police Service ...

Their Problem-Oriented Policing group has been hard at work on developing POP approaches to several crime and local community safety issues. One particular

initiative is being crafted by one of their frontline folks, who had his proposed project greenlight for further development. I can't lie: I love to see everyone getting involved, especially Constables and Sergeants! #awesome.

Work also continues with LPS on missing persons and analyzing data to develop targeted prevention initiatives. I expect things in this area to heat up in the fall -- watch this space --

One thing all this missing persons work - with both LPS and VicPD - has got me to consider exploring is the extent to which street check data is used as a resource in trying to locate people reported in these files. As most misspers files in Ontario will not likely have information involving street checks after January 2017, I'll be limited here to 2014-2016 data (as many agencies only keep 5 years). Hrm ... stay tuned for future episodes!